The Expeditions update has spent a few weeks baking on the beta branch, and is now live on main.
The big change here is to reduce the amount of RNG in the midgame. Each expedition now has a set (and thematically consistent) set of rewards. This means *much* less grinding away at expeditions waiting for the ONE ITEM YOU STILL NEED FOR YOUR VICTORY to drop.
Exceptions: the last expedition in each area (Forsaken Reach, Kerisham, etc.) now give intentionally repeatable rewards, and will allow you to get rewards from earlier expeditions if a Rival snaffled that expedition.
There are also six new Expeditions with some significant snippets of lore (yes this is all a free update, I don't know what I was thinking).
All in all, this will make the game much more playable the first few times through, though less ultimately replayable.... but the Apostle legacies / Major Victories coming in January should provide a lot more playability.
More about those here: http://weatherfactory.biz/christophers-build/